A Canadian non-profit with a record for going deep on deep energy retrofits has launched a “right size” heat pump training program designed to maximize energy and emissions savings.
Green Communities Canada (GCC), an EnerGuide service organization, has expanded its 2022 deep energy retrofit program with a new project: Heat Pump Right-Sizing Energy Concierge and Advocacy. The plan is to train EnerGuide energy advisors and heat pump installers on how to match heat pump sizes with the buildings they serve.
“We have found that heat pump installations in general were undersized and thereby under-performing and under-delivering energy, financial, and greenhouse gas reductions to homeowners,” writes GCC. “Other analysts across the country have come to the same conclusion.”
The training is made possible by a three-year, C$450,000 grant from the Peter Gilgan Foundation, along with continued funding from the McConnell Foundation and the Trottier Family Foundation, GCC writes.
[Energy Mix Productions is partly funded by both the McConnell and Trottier Family Foundations.]
No More ‘Piecemeal Measures’
Last November, GCC completed a survey of building retrofits under the recently-revamped Canada Greener Homes program and found that its messaging needed to be revised “to emphasize deep retrofits, and a complete retrofit plan (envelope, mechanicals, renewables) rather than piecemeal measures.”
Canadian homeowners were flocking to embrace the “piecemeal” approach because the maximum $5,000 grant under Greener Homes was insufficient to support the cost of a complete retrofit plan, which can reach tens of thousands of dollars depending on the age of a house, GCC said.
So many homeowners seized on the most affordable parts of a deep retrofit—heat pumps and windows—leaving costly envelope improvements for some future time.
That was unfortunate, said GCC, given that securing the building envelope can reduce the energy needed to heat a home by 50%.
More grant dollars will be needed to get the original $2.6-billion federal program back on its decarbonizing track, the group added.
Size Matters
But once a building’s efficiency is maximized, electrification of its heat supply comes next—and here too, there are problems, GCC found.
Several factors are driving a tendency in Canada to under-size heat pumps, including a high likelihood that the pumps are installed with a backup heat source—a safeguard that technological advances have made redundant, GCC energy programs consultant Kai Millyard told The Energy Mix.
But sizing a heat pump correctly demands that installers have a firm handle on a house’s duct work, which can be time-consuming and expensive to acquire, he added. Fearing noisy rattling from heat pumps too large for existing duct work, installers may recommend smaller pumps, which do not fully deliver.
Insufficient electrical capacity coming into a house is yet another factor: “The house only has 100 amps, and the heat pump needs 200,” he said. “It’s expensive to upgrade.”
GCC’s new program will train energy auditors on how to zero in on the right-sized heat pumps, and how to pass this knowledge on to consumers.
